Abstract:We
propose and validate a comprehensive measure of power for the top
management teams (TMTs) of publicly listed Chinese firms. We show that
our measure is positively associated with the four power dimensions
developed by prior research for U.S. firms as well as three
Asia-relevant power dimensions, including political capital, seniority,
and gender. We find that our TMT power measure is a valid proxy for TMT
power for both state-controlled firms and non-state-controlled firms. We
also compare our TMT power measure with one alternative TMT power proxy
based on executive compensation and find no evidence that the
alternative proxy is better than our measure in capturing TMT’s true
power. Further, we provide evidence that the divergence between our
power proxy and the power proxy based on executive compensation reflects
nonmarket institutional forces in China and has important implications
for corporate outcomes.: